Compassion watch

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2012 at 9:15 AM

Ohioans who remember the June 29 blast of rain and winds, called a derecho, that left many without electrical power for longer than a week, can empathize with what their East Coast neighbors are going through.

Ohioans who remember the June 29 blast of rain and winds, called a derecho, that left many without electrical power for longer than a week, can empathize with what their East Coast neighbors are going through.

And be grateful that Ohio is ending up in a position to offer help, rather than require it.

The super storm known as Hurricane Sandy has knocked out power to more than 7 million people on the East Coast, and dozens of deaths were blamed on the bad weather.

Ohio, however, was largely spared, except for some nasty winds and a bit of snow. But New York and New Jersey were battered on Monday, as the nor’easter and hurricane combined to produce “ Frankenstorm.”

The colorful nickname — from a forecaster at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration — lived up to its allusion to Mary Shelley’s frightening creature.

A full moon and high tides helped produce a record 13.88-foot storm surge that swamped lower Manhattan. The storm brought sustained winds topping 80 mph and hammered the Appalachians with a blizzard. It flooded entire neighborhoods and coastal areas, toppling trees and downing power lines.

Central Ohioans who remember the windstorm and long power outage from Hurricane Ike, which blew directly over the region in 2008, know how fierce the damage can be.

As it was, about 200 people here were without power early yesterday in the greater metropolitan area, though service was restored quickly. Statewide, American Electric Power said just 10,000 of 1.5 million customers were affected, and most also were back on by midday.

Ohioans will have a cold Halloween. And they’ve had to dig out their winter coats and dust snow from windshields before the leaves finished falling. But that’s small potatoes to those who are trying to recover from Sandy. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told The New York Times that the damage to his state is “incalculable” and described the Jersey shore as “devastated.”

Crews from other states, anticipating that help would be needed, began heading East days ago and are now working to restore power. AEP, which had been waiting to see how bad Ohio would be hit, yesterday began sending crews to help its customers in other states. The challenge is enormous: In some areas of West Virginia, snow is expected to reach 20 inches by this morning, and wind gusts could be as high as 45 mph.

Frankenstorm will be remembered for canceling more than 12,000 airline flights, closing schools, prompting massive evacuations, shutting down the New York stock market and flooding New York subways and tunnels with salt water.

The storm also, blissfully but maybe briefly, has made national leaders focus on priorities that don’t involve political mudslinging.

In the days ahead, many Ohioans will volunteer time, supplies and money to aid those trying to recover from the devastation. At times like this, Americans realize how much they care about each other and pull together to think good thoughts and lend a helping hand.